Proposal to solve the issue open vs closed games for tournaments especially for NC:

Issue being:
Open games bear the risk for the higher ranked player that the opponent might cheat.
Closed games kill the tournament, as a tournament that cannot be watched isn't interesting. Especially in team tournaments like NC, if you cannot watch your teammate's games that's really annoying and probably a nogo for the event.

Suggested solution:
DOW, please implement
- the possiblility to choose, which of the players you want to watch (instead of default to the highest ranked player).
If it's easier to do that only for 2-player games, that's OK.
- the choice, by whom you accept to be watched, for all players (currently the player opening a game can decide between "open", "buddies only" and "closed". We would need the opener of the game and the joining opponent to be able to take this choice from his point of view - so if a spectator chooses to watch me, he can do that if my selected option allows it.)
If it's complicated to implement this selection when joining a game we could also do with a general customizing in the profile "my games can be watched by everyone/buddies only/nobody" as people will probably stay with their attitude anyhow, and if they don't they can always change the profile.

Example how it would work:
Assume I play Sysy - we trust each other, so we both select "everyone can watch". Our teammates have the advantage that they can watch their own team's player, whoever is higher rated (normally that's what you want to do), if that's what they prefer to see.
Assume Sceptic_1 play Sceptic_2 - they both don't trust anyone but their teammates, so they both select "buddies only". Each of them can be watched by his buddies (but they can watch only their own player, not the other one), no stranger can watch anything.

...in adding to dea's wish: Please implement a grouping function of your buddylist (in the lobby & in forum), so that you can easily find your teammates/members of team XYZ or tournament players at all or rather (to use dea's proposal) allow your teammates/team XYZ to watch your games!

And furthermore a statistic corner for the buddylist (only in the forum, not in the lobby) could be very helpful: A page showing the specific ELOs of your buddies including a sorting function could solve the problem of creating the seeding of a tournament!

Another idea... now some may say it is a bad idea, but it does make the game more realistic to playing the original...

When playing EU (and I presume Asia too...) If a player keeps one of the large tickets, something should be present on screen to tell this. If you were playing live you would be able to see whether your opponent had kept their large ticket with it being blue on the back. That would in my opinion make a significant difference to EU play online...

Knowing whether to block or whether your opponent was bluffing without the biggie etc. would make it more like a live game - the online version's purpose is to emulate this...

I personally hate EU, my least favourite map by a long way, this improvement probably would still leave me not wanting to play it, but at least it would make it the same as the board game...

When you lay a track/station, an UNDO button appears on your screen (but not visible for other players). You have 5 seconds to click on it if you want to change your move/action.
After 5 sec, the message disappears automaticaly and your move/action is definitive.

To avoid that all games are played with the UNDO fonction, add an option when you create a game (with/without UNDO).

Ok I won't comment all the interesting proposals here, my demands and observations will only concern the main reason why this thread has been opened : THE RANKING INFORMATIONS. The points I suggest are by order of importance.

- After the long debate we had last NC, after the vote to keep a grouping based on the team rankings, it's clear that we need a very important statistic : the 2pl. USA. This would really help the community and maybe if we need to ask only one thing this would be the most useful.

- Then why not have separate 2pl and multi statistics for each map ? It would be useful for the SPWC, SMC, EMC, LEAGUE and MPWC (an a possible multi Euro tourney).

- Having a rank by nation, like dandee suggests, could be interesting too. Firstly this could be used for national tourneys, like Italy did this year (why not having a german, US or french tourney in the future ? This could happen).
More important this could be used for the NC too : it would be very nice to a have a flag of the country next to the player name in the overall ranking page. This could help the captains to form a team, less work for those who make the "players to contact list" and would close the debates like "are there enough UK players to form a team ?"

The last 2 points are not really useful for the community and the tourneys, just 2 personal suggestions :

- Since I started playing TTR and was aware of a ranking system, I have dreamed of a statistic that would indicate the best overall rank ever reached. This information is for me a clear indication of the strength of an opponent. For example, when you're rank 200, it's not the same satisfaction to beat a rank 150 who has ever been top 20 than a rank 150 who is at his current top rank.

- As a multi player, I would be very interested with having a 4er rank and a 5er rank. I don't know if I am a better player in 4ers or 5ers, and I don't know it for my opponents.

To conclude my point of view is clear : the more statistics about ranking we have, the more we're helped for making solid tournaments. And the ranking is then more interesting for all the players. A big problem for DOW then would be the ergonomics of the ranking pages... !!!

1) Was not the purpose to have the UNDO function for tickets. You have the time to select and your selection is clearly indicated.
2) Yes I know a lot of games with UNDO
3) It doesn't affect the other players. They can't see when a player has used it.

1) Was not the purpose to have the UNDO function for tickets. You have the time to select and your selection is clearly indicated.

Yes, I know, that was just a humoristic remark... I guess it's harder and harder to detect humor here, including for me (but I tried to put a smiley to be more explicit)... I understood that it would only concern tracks.

Quote:

2) Yes I know a lot of games with UNDO

Question was to get information on that process. I wish you could quote examples to know if it's a common feature for boardgames online, and especially in tournaments.

Quote:

3) It doesn't affect the other players. They can't see when a player has used it.

Yes no problem.

My question was: do misclicks occur that often to justify the use of an undo button?
Since we are playing tourneys, would not that reduce the chance of mistake due to a loss of focus or nerves ?

In formula 1 or boat racing, if your boat/car has a failure in the last lap, you do not win either.
I'm not much in favor of emotionless online games either. Correcting everything would kill the human part of the game.

The regular misclickers seem to be found among the players who play very fast (too fast?): onyx, Will and Masimo in that thread !

One thing that I would like to see happen is in the lobby itself. Is having a way to have a private chat with a user.

I think this would be helpful in many aspects in creating private games, waiting for an opponent to show up in the lobby. They can send you a message stating I am here rather than posting it in the lobby and expecting you to be paying attention to whats happening in the lobby.

Another feature is while observing a match to have the capability to communicate with the lobby.

Apparently the web version of TTR online is impossible to download now.

If you are a new customer, you are automatically sent to steam.
And you have to buy your new maps and new games on steam.

New players now access TTR from their desktop and do not access the DoW Website.

What might it imply ?

*) No visibility at all for the competitive community since you don't have a direct link to the forum from steam.

*) Limited access to rankings and history

*) No access to pm.

Consequences

*) We are bound to play with the same pool of players, which is itself not a huge problem, but would be nice to attract new players.

Hopefully, in the near future, it will be easier to have access to the competitive community from steam so that we can broaden our pool of players.

Honestly, the game play on steam is not very clear, and not very attractive. Probably too used to be playing on the web version. But that's a way less important matter.

EDIT : I just sent a pm and a message through the contact service to know if we can expect to be included in/realted to the steam version for a better visibilty, and if we can still expect improvements for our web version !

On the iPad version, it would be good if the rating of players were posted in the restaurant and if those ratings matched the type map/version of the game. I get into a game with 3 1000 players in it, and then get stuck there as the "owner" of the game immediately starts the game before I can bug out. So then I play my typical game and happen to block one of their routes and they turn into bots.